JORGE RUIZ-MEDRANO, MD, JOSÉ M. RUIZ-MORENO, MD, PHD, ABHILASH GOUD,
KIRAN KUMAR VUPPARABOINA, B TECH, SOUMYA JANA, PHD, JAY CHHABLANI, MD
Purpose: To analyze the vascular density of the choroid in a healthy population using
swept-source optical coherence tomography.
Methods: A cross-sectional, noninterventional study. Inclusion criteria: best-corrected
visual acuity between 20/20 and 20/25, spherical equivalent between ±3 diopters, no
systemic or ocular diseases, and ages ranging between 3 and 85 years. One hundred
and thirty-six eyes from 136 subjects were analyzed, 86 eyes (63.2%) were from male
and 50 eyes (36.8%) from female subjects. The eyes were divided into different age groups
to analyze the possible age-related changes. Twelve-millimeter horizontal, fovea-centered
B-scans were used. Choroidal stroma and vessel area analysis involved automated segmentation and binarization using validated algorithms.
Results: Mean age was 33.1 ± 24.5 years. Mean choroidal area was 0.5554 ±
0.1377 mm2. Mean stromal area was 0.2524 ± 0.0762 mm2, and mean vascular region
area was 0.3029 ± 0.0893 mm2. The percentage of choroidal vascularity (vascular area/
total area) was 54.40 ± 8.35%. Choroid area, vascular region, and percentage of choroidal vascular density were statistically higher in the ,18-year-old group versus the .18-
year-old group (P , 0.001). The stromal region was not different (P = 0.46). In the same
way, choroid area, vascular region, and percentage of choroidal vascular density
between the 5 age groups were statistically different (P , 0.001), showing larger figures
in the 0 to 10-year-old group, but not stromal region (P = 0.71). There were no genderrelated differences.
Conclusion: The luminal area and the percentage of vascular/total area decrease with
increasing age, while the stromal area remains stable.
RETINA 0:1–8, 2017
